Improvement in spokeshaves



IRA L. BEOKWIIH, OF- QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS..

IMPROVEMENT IN SPKESHAVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. ld, dated April 29, 1837.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IRA L. BECKWITH, of Quincy, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful improvement in a machine or instrumentcommonly called and known as a Spokeshavef7 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description.

In the accompanying drawings, the part numbered represents the frame or wood-work, as seen in the accompanying` model. It is of boxwood, but may equally well consist of any other kind of hard wood.

No. l in the drawings is a steel roller, fitted into No. 2, which is a sort of frame fixed to the wood and immovable. The roller is fitted in and is designed to turn with the greatest facility. f

No. 2 is the frame set into the wood and serving to contain the roller. It is generally (and always when in use) immovable; but it is made fast to the wood by two bolts, which enter on the front side at aandb and pass entirely through the wood, coming out at the opposite side, where they are fitted with a nut, which is screwed on the ends of the bolts, so that as the knife (marked 3) lwears away by use and leaves too great a space between it (the knife) and the roller, the wood immediately behind the roller may be a little cut away, and then, by screwing on the nut, the roller with No. 2 will be approximated to the knife and may be again used.

No. 3 is the knife. is intended to be kept constantly sharp.

It is a plate of steel. It Itis fastened to the wood by two prongs or feetone at either end of the knife which pass through the wood and enter and are fixed in two thumb-screws on the opposite side.

No. 4 is a thin plate, stratum7 or cap of steel, which is fitted immediately under and in close contact to the knife. It is made fast to the knife by two screws, (marked c and d.) The general object of this cap is to enable the instrument to be used against the grain of the wood which is being shaved, which cannot be done with the spokeshave now in use.

It will be observed that the holes or apertures in the cap for the entrance of the screws are somewhat larger than the body of the screws. rIhe object in this is that as the knife wears away the screws may at any time be a little loosened and the cap slid back from the edge of knife; then tighten the screws again and your instrument is ready for renewed use.

Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. rlhe substitution of the roller No. l for the square block of immovable metal in the old spokeshave, by which substitution the shavings are more freely shed, and wood, or a spoke of a more crooked or curved surface may be shaved.

2. The manner, as before described, in which the parts are pnt together so as to approximate the roller to the edge of the knife as the knife wears away.

3. The addition of the cap marked No. 4, which did not exist in the old spokeshave, and which gives to wheelwrights and other mechanics the important power of shaving against 

